MotoGP: Flu Hinders Valentino Rossi

On the second day of MotoGP pre-season testing in Malaysia, Valentino Rossi opted out due to flu symptoms.

The nine-time World Champion Rossi was weak due to a fever and a cold when he arrived at Sepang International Circuit Wednesday morning. The Italian consulted with the medical staff, and underwent anti-flu treatment at the Clinica Mobile.

Rossi returned to his hotel, where he rested, hoping to be in better condition for the final of day of MotoGP testing in Sepang.

During the opening day of testing Tuesday, Rossi finished ninth overall, the highest-placed Ducati of the day.

Rossi continued to work on the Ducati GP11’s setup during his 53 laps at Sepang at the first session, finishing 1.012 seconds behind the leader Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda).

Rossi also rode the Desmo without the fairing "wings" that were originally presented on the bike during the Ducati MotoGP Team’s livery launch at WROOOM in January.

Rossi’s teammate, Nicky Hayden, was the sole Ducati team rider at the Wednesday test. The American struggled, finishing 12th after completing 44 laps.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro MotoGP Team) says: "It wasn’t the smoothest day, as we had a couple of time-consuming glitches. We had planned to put on some fresh tyres at the end to see how good the changes we’d made really were, but we had a small problem with the gearbox near the end, and there wasn’t time to go back out.

"We still did 44 laps though, and it was a pretty solid day overall. The team really worked hard today, so thanks to them as always. Our gap to the front is still quite big, but we’ve definitely managed to get the chatter a lot better. It’s not completely cured, but it’s good enough that we can focus on some other stuff. I’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow, so hopefully we can take a big step and leave here positive."

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